What may a christian hope for in this life? Part 6

Yet the question remains, what of those christians over the last two thousand years who have aligned their hopes with Christ and his kingdom, who have longed for his coming in their lifetime, but have died before his coming? Were their hopes legitimate or mistaken? Or should they have been better at reading the signs of the times and tempered their hopes? Even more than the outcome of our personal history, christian hope looks for it’s legitimacy from the one who will return to judge all things, including our hopes, Jesus Christ. In Acts 1 Jesus specifically instructs his disciples that it is not for them to know the dates and the times set by the Father when he will restore the kingdom. In Matthew 25, Jesus commends the five virgins who wait expectantly, prepared for the bridegrooms coming, since we do not know the hour that the Son of Man is coming. Christians are exhorted to watch and be sober . Moltmann speaks of the ‘sin of despair’ “The temptation today is not so much that humans beings want to play God. It is much more that they no longer have confidence in the humanity which God expects of them. It is the fearfulness fed by lack of faith which leads to capitulation before the power of evil” . It is not those who have reconciled themselves to the evil world who are vindicated, but those who cry out with the martyr’s “How long O Lord”